Tatts Group and Intralot in Merger Negotiations

Australia’s gambling operator, Tatts Group, has revealed they are in the centre of advanced negotiations with Greek gambling giant Intralot to acquire its Australian and New Zealand business.

“These discussions have advanced to a confirmatory due-diligence stage and Intralot has agreed to conduct this process on an exclusive basis with Tatts,” Tatts confirmed in a statement made to the Australian Securities Exchange. “In the event of any material developments, Tatts will make a further announcement as required by its continuous disclosure obligations.”

Tatts has been in discussions with Intralot Australia for some time and the negotiations have now progressed. It has not disclosed the amount they would be willing to pay to acquire the business and has stressed that no official proposal has yet been made.

Until late 2014, Intralot Australia sold lotto and keno tickets in Victoria and they were a rival of Tatts at the time. However, Intralot then sold its Category 2 lottery license assets to the Tatts Group. From that time, the company focused primarily on its monitoring of gaming machine operations and it monitors gaming devices in hotels and pubs throughout the state.

The company also supplies information on the performance of gaming machines to regulators and the tax authority. Intralot Australia reported revenue of AU$26 million for the previous financial year.

This potential acquisition comes shortly after the sale of Tatt’s UK pokies business, Talarius. Just last week, the company’s rival Tabcorp announced its acquisition of gaming technology company, Intecq for AU$128 million. Analysts have suggested that this news may trigger renewed merger discussions between Tatts and Tabcorp, who considered a merger late last year; however at the time, talks broke down and a merger was taken off the table.